TURNING THE COST OF LIVING CRISIS INTO A POSITIVE

As we all hurtle towards a cost of living crisis, the lifestyle that you have worked so hard for starts to take a real battering. Week on week there seems to be less and less in your shopping basket, yet the amount at the till is going up and up. Household bills are creeping up faster than the thermometer during a heatwave. And the simple pleasures that used to make life worth living are becoming more and more like a luxury.

Through no fault of your own you find yourself needing to take a good long hard look at different aspects of your spending and reassess where your priorities lie.

It’s going to be a rocky ride for us all but let us help you strap on your protective gear and guide you through the worst of it – and hopefully come through the other side as unscathed as possible.

Keep the compounding effect in mind

Making lots of small imperceptible changes in your day to day activities and outgoings may reduce the pain aspect of cutting back because you don’t notice them so much, but as a collective can make a difference once the compounding effect kicks in.

Take back control of your home

As we go about our everyday lives we are probably less observant of the minutiae of our household energy consumption. Devices may be left on in bedrooms by careless children, fridge doors left ajar, empty freezers left humming in the garage, lawnmower batteries left sitting on shelves charging up.

Be disciplined with the kids

Attempt to instil a bit of discipline in your family. Teenagers are more than old enough to understand the value of money, and will soon jump on board with the changes when they realise that the rising costs will soon affect their own lives.

For younger children, this is a perfect opportunity to educate them about the cost of living in a way that is not going to frighten them.

• Set them a challenge. For example, ask them how much money they think it costs to run the house each month.
• Run a competition to see who can find the cheapest online quotes for insurance or energy bills. Arm them with the necessary details and an email address, and see who can come back with the best quote.
• Give them a budget and suggest they shop online for family meals for the week without going over that budget.

Be savvy about your ‘luxuries’

The whole point about a ‘luxury’ is that it denotes a certain extravagance. And during a cost of living crisis an extravagance is not something you should be looking at. However, there is a difference between a wasteful extravagance, and something that could be considered a long term investment. This is where you need to be extremely clever.

For example, going out for a ‘luxury’ meal, extravagantly splashing out on the most expensive wines might give you temporary relief, but once eaten, it’s gone.

However, investing in a luxury silver bracelet is a tangible object that will hold its valuable over a long period of time. Precious metal prices like anything do fluctuate, but as a tangible asset it is not going to go anywhere.

Make new better habits

The routine a rhythm of life can lead us down a route of comfort in which we start to eat too much chocolate or drink too much wine. This cost of living crisis is a perfect opportunity to get yourself into healthier food habits by cutting out the alcohol and expensive takeaways, and choosing to eat freshly prepared meals using healthier ingredients.